The York Conservation Alumni Association Blog

As a prelude to the York Conservation Alumni Association’s 2018 AGM on Saturday 14 July 2018, a healthy turnout of almost twenty alumni joined John Ives for a fascinating walking tour of some of York’s leading railway heritage.

Despite the unfortunate timing of the tour to coincide with the sweltering summer heat, the height of the tourist season, impatient traffic, and, worse still, streams of jovial punters heading to York Racecourse for the ‘John Smith’s Cup’, we were clearly in dependable hands. John Ives is a Conservation Accredited Architect and a partner of York-based PPIY Architects Limited, as well as Chair of the City of York Council’s Conservation Area Appraisal Panel. He has also been a leading figure in railway heritage for over the 40 years, due to having worked for British Rail’s Architects Department until its demise with privatisation in 1995, and as co-author of the York Station Conservation Development Strategy (2012).

In John’s introductory, and richly-illustrated, presentation, held in a spacious seminar room above Platform 8 of Thomas Presser’s highly impressive Grade II* Railway Station of 1877, it was evident that the Strategy Report of 2012 was a detailed audit of the city’s railway heritage, which spans nearly 200 years and numerous sites. Who knew, for example, that the city has had three central railway stations in total, or that one of the country’s oldest extant water tower (built in 1839, Grade II listed) is tucked away in one of the station’s car parks!

John Ives (centre, to the rear), pointing out the rich history of the Railway Institute building, with the foundations of the Queen Street bridge behind. Source: Duncan Marks.

We subsequently spent an enjoyable couple of hours, in sun and occasional shade, circumnavigating the station to take a closer look at the railway heritage. This included: the former stable blocks (as the early C19 railway companies used a prodigious number of horses for moving goods and wagons); an enormous laundry service for the railway’s hotels that were strategically placed along the length of the London to Edinburgh line; the damage caused to the railway station in the Baedeker Raid of 29 April 1942, and subsequent hastily-constructed postwar repairs; the Railway Institute building, where canny railway bosses replaced the Railway Tavern – a favourite lunchtime drinking haunt of their workers – with this institute to provide billiard rooms, educational classes, a gymnasium and rifle range; cavernous brick sheds for the locomotive works; fine late-C19 brick-vaulted arches supporting the Queen Street bridge; G.T. Andrew’s enormous spanning arches punctured into the city walls, built to allow trains to arrive at the former station building that stood within the city walls (now the City of York Council offices) – and not to provide returning Roman Legionnaires easy access to the city, as some tourists might otherwise assume if they were to believe the city’s walls are genuinely Roman! ; a guard’s shed at the foot of the city walls, now contextually isolated from its original purpose; bunker provision for railway workers during World War II, when the need to keep the railway lines running was key to the success of the war effort; and, for a finale, the War Memorial by Edwin Lutyens on Station Rise, complete with the names of nearly 3,000 North Eastern Railway (WWI) and L&NER (WWII) employers who died in the World Wars.

The development of two key sites by the City of York Council, and other stakeholders offers the opportunity to better promote such rich railway heritage. One site is to the east of the railway station, a 45-hectare brownfield called York Central. It sits above a Roman cemetery and for the last 150 years has been used for various railway purposes, including the site today of the National Railway Museum. The vision for it is modelled on the recent transformation of the area behind King’s Cross station in London, and offers residential and office space along with an expansion of the museum. The other site is to the front of the railway station, where plans are afoot to streamline the traffic flow and improve the public realm.

A former guard’s shed at the foot of the city walls. Source: David Webdale

Some of the railway heritage will however be lost in these redevelopments, most noticeably the Queen Street bridge, which no longer serves its original function to allow cars to pass above (now removed) railway lines. Its removal will likely allow for a better appreciation of the city walls, present a ‘gateway’ to the city for those arriving by train, and improve taxi and bus provision in the city. The facade of the four-storey Railway Institute building will also take some getting used to once the first-floor pedestrian bridge that currently connects with the Queen Street bridge is removed, and the first floor doorway will likely need remodelling. Likewise, the cute guard’s shed at the foot of the city walls will likely seem even more out of its railway context once the bridge is removed. Its remoteness no doubt will add to its eerie feel of the uncanny – a small, cute railway cottage seemingly wrongly plonked in the bustle of a modern city; one part C21 art installation, one part urban incarnation of a Hansel and Gretel tale.

The Railway Institute building, complete with 1st floor pedestrian bridge to the Queen St. bridge, with the former Locomotive Works shed in the background (now a Europcar pick-up / drop-off point). Source: York Press.

Despite the evident rich history of railway development on the York Central site, there is no real driving impetus in the scheme to put the remaining railway structures at the forefront of its masterplan. What role will they serve? How prominent will they be when surrounded by up to six-storey residential blocks? How will they influence the aesthetic of the new development and its landscaping? It ultimately raises concerns that conservation of the railway heritage could be only tokenistic, left as isolated remnants without a wider narrative to give contextual explanation linking with the site to its railway past.

The walk underlined not only the the importance of railways in York’s modern development, but also just how much of this heritage remains today, albeit dotted here and there and often out of sight to the casual passerby. The railways became the foremost employer in the city during the C19 and much of the C20, employing nearly 5,000 people by 1901. From this, great pride was associated between industry and city, as evident in the North Eastern Railway WWI Memorial, standing prominent on a sightline from the Minster directly across Lendal Bridge.

As with many British cities, especially in the north, the transition since the 1980s from an industrial to post-industrial economy has not come without social and economic consequences. It has, however, left much heritage as testimony to former times of employment and prosperity. Aside from the former Rowntrees and Terry’s chocolate factories, which are today being converted into residential housing, this rich railway heritage is York’s leading visual acknowledgement of former days when the city was as much built for labour as leisure. Following the walk, we were left to reflect on the extent York’s workforce takes similar civic pride in its association with Aviva insurance, which is based where the former railway coal drops were, or Europcar, which uses the former locomotive sheds on Queen Street, or the Grand Hotel, which today occupies the former L&NER headquarters.

YCAA is very grateful to John Ives for giving up his time to host the tour, and to LNER for providing free use of a seminar room at York Railway Station for the purpose of our visit.

York Conservation Alumni Association is delighted to invite alumni, current students, friends and colleagues to join us on our Study Tour to Tallinn in Estonia for September 2018.

Tallinn, the capital of the Baltic country Estonia has a fascinating architectural mix that has been influenced by different rulers and conquerors through the history. On the study trip to Tallinn we’ll be mainly concentrating on three facets – the largely intact medieval old town, the Kalamaja region that boasts some of the best examples of wooden architecture from first republic period, and the vernacular architecture in Rocca al Mare Open Air Museum.

Tallinn’s medieval Old Town

Draft Schedule

Friday 7 September – travel day. Welcome dinner, if most people make their way to Tallinn by early evening.

Possible suggested routes to Tallinn may include:

London Stansted – Tallinn with Ryanair 6.45-11.25, £95 when I checked with return Tallinn – London Gatwick 21.40-22.40 with EasyJet, £41 when last checked.

Flights with stopovers from Manchester start from £200 and have various stopover times. I had a look on Jetcost and there are plenty of options.

Saturday 8 September – Day 1: Tallinn Old Town

The origins of Tallinn date back to the 13th century, when a castle was built there by the crusading knights of the Teutonic Order. It developed as a major centre of the Hanseatic League, and its wealth is demonstrated by the opulence of the public buildings (the churches in particular) and the domestic architecture of the merchants’ houses, which have survived to a remarkable degree despite the ravages of fire and war in the intervening centuries.

Sunday 9 September – Day 2: Architecture from the first Estonian Republic period

Kalamaja is notable as one of the best preserved wooden architecture areas in Tallinn. From the 14th century the area was traditionally dominated by fishermen, fishmongers and boat wrights. A new era began with the building of the Tallinn – St Petersburg railway that coincided with the opening of numerous factories and attracted an influx of thousands of new inhabitants.

Monday 10 September – Day 3: Estonian vernacular architecture

The open air museum started its work in 1957 and was finally opened to the public in 1964. It is a life-sized reconstruction of an 18th century rural fishing village, including a church, inn, schoolhouse, several windmills, a fire station, twelve farm yards and net sheds.

Tuesday 11 September – travel day – return home

Here are a couple of suggestions for accommodation, but really any place in Tallinn Old Town is good and close together.

Hostel Rotermann – Good location and cheap for a dormitory room (not bunk beds). Also some doubles/twins available.

YCAA MEMBERS and their guests are invited to attend a free and exclusive heritage event on Saturday 14 July, 11am-1pm: York Central’s Railway Heritage Tour.

The tour, which will precede this year’s YCAA AGM in the afternoon at the King’s Manor (Room G/33), will explore the York Railway Station facade and York Central areas.

The City of York Council, and other stakeholders, are currently proposing major development schemes for the areas to the Station Front and rear of York’s Railway Station. The latter is a 45-hectare brownfield site known as York Central. It sits on a Roman cemetery and for the last 150 years has been used for various railway purposes, including the site today of the National Railway Museum. It means this could well be the last time to see and fully appreciate this heritage before demolition.

The tour will be led by John Ives, a graduate of Leeds School of Architecture, who worked for British Rail’s Architects Department until its demise with privatisation in 1995 and has been a leading figure in working with the railway heritage over the last 40 years.

As a Conservation Accredited Architect and a partner of York-based PPIY Architects Limited, John is the author of the York Station Conservation Development Strategy (2012) and with Dr Bill Fawcett and Alison Sinclair prepared an Audit of the railway heritage of the York Central site (under the auspice of the city’s Conservation Areas Advisory Panel of which John is the Chairman).

Following recent restoration work by YCAA alumnus Ravindra Gundu Rao at two cemeteries in South India that hold close-association with the British Empire, and the wider work of the British Association for Cemeteries in South Asia (BACSA), this article uses such conservation work to reflect upon the overlap between memory, place and commemoration.

As similar built heritage with imperial connotations has recently been seen by some as ‘contested heritage’, the parameters of such conservation are explored here in relation to time and space. Parallels are drawn with other cemetery conservation and community initiatives, such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the British Government’s First World War Centenary Battlefield Tours Programme, and Israel’s Youth Delegations to Poland programme. Ultimately, we need to ask for whom should this built heritage be conserved, what purpose might it serve, and how might knowledge of it be better promoted?

British Cemetery, Lovedale, Ootacamund, Tamil Nadu

The British Cemetery at Lovedale, Ootacamund, in the Tamil Nadu state of South India, was opened in 1832. The site of the cemetery is in the high hills of an extensive 750-acre campus of The Lawrence School.

Some of the repair, environmental and landscaping challenges at the British Cemetery. Source: Ravindra Gundu Rao.

The School was founded in 1858 in memory of Major General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence, KCB, who died in the First War of Indian Independence against British Rule in 1857 (more commonly known in Britain as the ‘Indian Mutiny’). It was created to provide vocational education to the orphans and the other children of European soldiers in India, and operated on a strictly Protestant Christian basis. Despite the end of British rule in India in 1947, the connection of the school, and hence the cemetery, with the military continues today as a public school with a 40% pupil allocation reserved, and a 20% fee subsidy, for children of Indian Defence Personnel.

The cemetery has 124 tombs of which approximately 110 are of the British Christians who lived and passed away in India in the C19. The work is currently in progress and soon to be complete.

The cemetery has suffered from exposure to monsoons, foliage growth on the stones, and other encroachments by nature; a common problem for cemeteries in India. The scope of this project is to conserve the graves, statues and landscaping through repairs using traditional stone restoration works, structural repairs, restoration using traditional brick lime mortar, paving, stucco and lime plaster works. As in many urban areas of India, a shortage of available local stone meant the British designed structures that were made of brick covered by plaster. This only makes them more prone to deterioration from the effects of water ingress during monsoons.

The conservation project is being done in conjunction with the BACSA and funded by the school’s alumni Old Lawrence Association. Indeed, the alumni association petitioned the school in 2016 for the restoration and maintenance of the school cemetery. A sense of continued connection between alumni and the cemetery is evident in their petition comments, with ‘integral to the school’s heritage’ being a frequent remark made. The comments made are on a personal and emotive level, with fond memories of the cemetery on the campus from their school days and a reverence to honour former pupils buried there. There is little, however, offered to suggest the cemetery holds value in a wider national or political narrative. Continue reading →

Conservation Masters degrees this year were awarded on Saturday 20 January by the University’s Chancellor, Sir Malcom Grant, at the Graduation ceremony in Central Hall on the Heslington West campus, together with an honorary degree awarded to the journalist, Orla Guerin MBE, who gave an inspiring and moving address.

In all, 18 students graduated with their MA in Conservation Studies and Conservation Studies (Historic Buildings) from the 2016-17 year. A number of others, who were finishing their studies part-time, will receive their awards at the summer graduation on 26 July.

You can watch the ceremony on YouTube here. The Conservation awards begin around 28 minutes in to the recording.

Jess Western and Tom Pinner celebrating at the graduation reception. Tom is now working as Heritage and Design Officer with Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Council. Jess, from New Zealand, is planning to continue her studies in a PhD programme.

Scholastic recognition

There were several members of the graduating cohort who were recognised for their scholastic achievement at an evening reception in King’s Manor after the graduation ceremony.

Of note, Amanda Brocklehurst received the prestigious conservation medal award from the York Consortium for Craftsmanship and Conservation. This is awarded by the Consortium to a student whose work has made a significant contribution to conservation practice. Amanda’s dissertation was an investigation of Grade 2 heritage buildings at risk in the North East of England and strategies for addressing the issues of neglect and under-resourcing. Amanda’s degree award was one of the highest distinctions in recent years. She is continuing to work as a conservation consultant in the North East.

Amanda Brocklehurst receiving the prestigious conservation medal award from the York Consortium for Craftsmanship and Conservation.

The Department’s Conservation Prize for the highest marked conservation dissertation in the year was received by Helen Mulholland for her innovative research into proteinaceous additives in lime mortars. She also received the Yorkshire Philosophical Society’s Herman Ramm prize for the highest marked dissertation in the whole cohort across all programmes.

Helen Mulholland received the Department’s Conservation Prize for the highest marked conservation dissertation in the year.

Meanwhile, Sara Volkman was presented the York Conservation Alumni Association’s award for her outstanding contribution to her year, as the student representative on Board of Studies and as an ambassador for the programme. She also received a distinction in her degree award. Sarah, from the USA, has been volunteering in the Honduras since the end of the programme and is now working back in the USA.

In addition to student achievement, Tracy Wilcockson was recognised for her three years of outstanding service as YCAA Chair prior to stepping down in the summer. Under her stewardship, the YCAA expanded its social media activity, worked to establish contacts with international alumni, and expanded its presence with current students of the programme. Tracy continues her work as a Preventive Conservator at the University of York’s Borthwick Institute for Archives.

Tracy Wilcockson presented the York Conservation Alumni Association’s award to Sara Volkman for her outstanding contribution to her year.

York Conservation Alumni Association is delighted to announce its free Spring study visit to explore the northern city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne on Saturday 17 March 2018.

Designed by Michael Atkinson, YCAA’s new Chairman, and bonafide NorthEasterner, the day will involve two walking tours to take in the city’s sites and buildings in order to explore the rich heritage at the historic heart of the city and the iconic setting of the quayside and bridges.

To book your free place on the tour, please register on the tour’s Eventbrite page.

Newcastle-on-Tyne: A Context

The city developed around the Roman settlement Pons Aelius and was named after the castle built in 1080 by Robert Curthose, William the Conqueror’s eldest son. The city grew as an important centre for the wool trade in the C14, and later became a major coal mining area. The port developed in the C16 and, along with the shipyards lower down the River Tyne, was amongst the world’s largest shipbuilding centres. The city was a powerhouse during the Industrial Revolution with advancements such as the invention of the steam turbine and ‘Davy Lamp’ credited to the area.

The Tyne at Newcastle in the mid-C18. Image: UGC / Chroniclelive.co.uk

Cultural heritage also flourished and by the C18 the city was the fourth biggest printing industry in the UK. Establishment of the Literary and Philosophical Society in 1793 attracted intellectuals and academics.

The C20 brought about a steady decline in heavy industry during the interwar period affecting its coal mining and ship building pedigree. In response, the city has adapted and transformed itself into a cultural landmark.

The Study Day: An itinerary†

† The schedule of the day is subject to change pending the weather and any other unforeseen factors.

The visit begins at 10.45am, meeting at the glazed entrance portico of Newcastle Central Railway Station (1850, grade I listed), a distinctive public building designed in a classical style. A regular train service is in operation from York with trains departing at both 9.32am and 9.36am arriving direct into the city in time for the meeting point.

The morning walking tour concentrates on Old Newcastle and will take in the Church of St. John the Baptist (C12, grade I listed), historic market streets (Bigg, Groat and Cloth), The Literary and Philosophical Society (1822, grade II* listed), Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas (C14/C15, grade I Listed), The Black Gate (1250, grade I listed/ASM), Castle Keep (1178, grade I listed) and High Level Bridge (1849, grade I listed).

Lunch will be taken between 12.45pm – 1.45pm on Newcastle Quayside where there are a selection of street cafes and bars. Alternatively, a picnic lunch can be brought or bought on arrival at Newcastle Central Railway Station. Continue reading →

Built in 1907, Fort High School (Figure 1) is an unprotected historic building that stands two storeys high next to one of Bengaluru’s prized monuments, Tipu Sultan’s Summer Palace on one side and a large open ground on the other. Despite its idyllic location, this courtyard building has withstood the test of time and stands as was intended over 110 years ago. At present it is used as a high school and pre-university college run by the government, catering to over 500 students annually. Its present use makes it a unique conservation project that will involve introducing much needed modern amenities to the school, accommodating the public grounds that surround the building while retaining the historicity of a heritage building.

Figure 1. Front elevation (Photo courtesy: INTACH Bengaluru)

Significance

The site on which Fort High School stands is where the Mysore gate of the Bangalore fort once stood. It was the southern gate of the fort and it was here that in 1791 that the British martyred the soldiers of Tipu Sultan in the infamous Third Anglo-Mysore War. The building itself is equally important, as it was the first established government high school in the Mysore Province and was built at a time when the princely state of Mysore, under the administration of Maharaja Krishna Raja Wadiyar, began to develop the state. Opened as the English Vernacular school in 1905 and renamed as Fort High School 1907, the school boasts of associations with many prominent personalities of the Karnataka state.

The building fits the description of an Anglo-Vernacular style with elements of European architecture such as the scale and symmetry of the octagonal projecting bays (Figure 2) seen in the front elevation. The vernacular style is seen from the central courtyard (Figure 3) with rooms on all sides, the Madras terrace and sloping roof with Mangalore tiles (Figure 4). The ornamental features, such as the use of Roman arches with key stones above openings (Figure 5), gable ends with gable windows, and detailing such as cornices and wooden fascia, all give a colonial expression to the building.

Another interesting result of the detailed survey conducted was that more than adequate evidence was found to determine that the school was built in two phases. This evidence ranged from differences in structural treatment, surface treatment, closing of gable windows, addition of new joinery details between the original structure and the later intervention. A few of the other interesting elements are:

i.) A unique timber-steel composite truss is seen supporting 8 primary angular rafters and a series of secondary rafters running along 4 ridges and 4 valleys from a single intersection point (Figure 6). This type of truss is seen in three prominent rooms on the first floor. Continue reading →